The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) announced this week that it has tapped Patrick Gallagher as its next chancellor.[2] Gallagher, 50, now serves as the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as well as the acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Gallagher’s new appointment is slated to begin 1 August.

After earning a Ph.D. in physics from Pitt in 1991, Gallagher joined NIST in 1993 as a research physicist. He was appointed its director on 5 November 2009[3]. As NIST director, Gallagher oversees some 3000 scientists, engineers, and support staff at two main labs in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado. NIST now has a budget of more than $850 million for fiscal year 2014.

Eric Lander, president and founder of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a statement praised Gallagher’s selection[4] as a “superb choice”: “Pat Gallagher has been an extraordinary leader at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). He is wise in the ways of both scientific research and governmental policy. He has unusually broad scientific interests, ranging from problems of manufacturing, to DNA fingerprinting, to energy innovation and innovation policy. Most importantly, he combines enormous integrity and great optimism with an exceptional ability to work with people.”